Legacy worth cherishing

The original Dunedin Railway Station design from John Campbell in a Hocken Collections painting...
The original Dunedin Railway Station design from John Campbell in a Hocken Collections painting by George O'Brien,
The Law Courts in 1902 just on the point of being handed over by the contractors.
The Law Courts in 1902 just on the point of being handed over by the contractors.
The Railway Station as built.
The Railway Station as built.

It was good the city council responded to Anne Stevens' call for action over the Dunedin courthouse and has resolved to make ''urgent representations to relevant ministers'' to get a commitment to its return to use as a court (ODT, 14.7.15).

Following the Christchurch earthquakes, a report was produced on strengthening the 113 year old category 1 historic place.

Another building has been rented and expensively adapted for the courts while work is carried out on the masonry structure in lower Stuart St.

But the Justice Department has sounded increasingly doubtful about whether any work will be done. Ms Stevens is a barrister and was voicing the concerns of the legal community which wants the building returned to use for its designed purpose.

It is indeed a fine example of the revived Tudor Gothic style used for a public building and with the railway station, the neighbouring former prison and Dunbar House makes a significant contribution to the impressive townscape of Anzac Square.

With the Allied Press building, constructed in the 1920s and others, it also contributes to the townscape of Lower Stuart St. Its relegation from use for court purposes would raise serious questions about its future and threaten these significant precincts.

There has been a similar saga over the outstanding court building in Oamaru where the ministry's estimates of the cost of strengthening have been shown to be exaggerated.

But even at the lowest estimate the ministry has been prepared to acknowledge as plausible, it is reluctant to spend the money because the courts only sit in Oamaru one day a week. That is worse than what has so far transpired in Dunedin, but it would be a sad day indeed if anything like that happened here.

The Dunedin courthouse was designed by John Campbell (1857-1942) a near contemporary and professional rival of Sir George Troup (1863-1941) the architect of the Dunedin Railway Station. Their buildings in visual proximity provide a wonderful opportunity to make comparisons.

Campbell was born in Glasgow, the son of a ship chandler. He served an apprenticeship as an architect under John Gordon from 1872 to 1876 and then worked for Gordon as an assistant draughtsman for another three years.

Gordon is remembered for his Greek Revival styles but Campbell's biographer Peter Richardson has said he showed little of that influence in New Zealand.

Campbell came to New Zealand, specifically Dunedin, in 1882 and worked briefly for Mason and Wales. The next year, he took up a temporary job with the Public Works Department here.

About 1883, he produced a design for a railway station in Dunedin and George O'Brien painted a handsome watercolour of it which is in the Hocken Collections.

Its foundations were laid - they're beneath the settlers museum - but no more was built because of the onset of the ''Long Depression''.

Richardson says it reveals Campbell's interest in baroque architectural elements but it is really an example of the revived Gothic, of an earlier type than the Tudor Gothic of the courthouse, but the station design exhibits a number of similarities to the courthouse.

Campbell was transferred to Wellington in 1889 where he worked for the Public Buildings Department which was merged with the Public Works Department in 1890.

He was finally accorded the title ''architect'', rather than draughtsman, in 1899. By that time, he had completed the Dunedin Prison, adjacent to the courthouse, in 1898 in the Queen Anne style.

The court was built in its contrasting materials - stone to the prison's brick - and style, Tudor Gothic with Scottish baronial overtones.

Troup was born in London, although his parents were Scottish. He was apprenticed to C. E. Calvert, an Edinburgh architect, 1879-82. He left for New Zealand in 1883 and worked in the Survey Department in Otago. In 1886, he joined the New Zealand Railways as a draughtsman in the Dunedin office.

Two years later, he moved to the head office in Wellington, where he remained and eventually became its chief architect. His Dunedin Railway Station - started 1904 and officially opened in 1906 - was his outstanding achievement.

It is described as being in the Flemish Renaissance style and its principal stone is Kokonga basalt, a darker material than the courthouse's Port Chalmers breccia.

It is a larger building than the courthouse, with a higher tower, but these two buildings, with the prison and the earlier Dunbar House, are the principal elements of the impressive array around Anzac Square.

Campbell became the chief government architect and designed the present Parliament Buildings constructed from 1912 to 1922 but never completed.

That should have been his greatest achievement but in my view it isn't. Its revived baroque is dignified but a little dull and we only have a bit of what was intended.

Let's hope this Government can do better for Campbell's Dunedin legacy.

Peter Entwisle is a Dunedin curator, historian and writer.

 

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